How to keep Deer Out of the Garden!!!!!!!!!!!

Way to go AngieMarie. I like the way you think.

With a 3 year old around I'm really not keen on electrifying fences or poisons. I use Liquid Fence which is pretty raunchy but not toxic. (It dries odorless.) You can even use it on veggies and fruits as long as you don't eat the fruit or veggie exposed at the time. I strip my plants of tomatoes, squash, cantaloupe, etc before I spray. After a couple of times the deer stay away.

OR you can plant flowers they like in front of the veggies and spray them. I used zinnias with great success but next year I'm using Euonymous (sp) that they live.

Even though we live in a residential area in town, there is a cemetery nearby, and around dusk we often see deer crossing the road to go in. We even had deer footprints in the snow on our deck during the winter.

Starting in early spring when the tulips and lilies start to grow, we use the deer repellent shown in these pictures. It also keeps off the lily beetles and discourages rabbits and other small critters. It has the smell of oil of clove which is not offensive, but it should not be sprayed without a mask if it is windy. We've used other types of spray from pet warehouses (such as bitter apple) which are more offensive to apply.

We keep the tomatoes and cucumbers off the ground and well staked. When the vegetables start to mature and ripen and there is evidence of visitors, we put up the deer netting. The netting is up pretty high where the vegetables are tall and ripe, and there is no problem if it does not reach the ground if there are no vegetables there. The light weight black netting really discourages Connecticut deer. When we put up the netting early, it was more of a hindrance because it was harder to stake and tie the plants.

The other side of the repellent refill package.

Thanks!!! In response to the person stating that the deer needed water is not true. I have a 15 acre lake behind my house. That is definitley not the problem

Ugh, that reminded me of the time quite a few years back when a 'coon climbed the utility pole in our yard and ended up dead on top of the transformer! Apparently the electric company doesn't consider that an "emergency" since it didn't take out our power (surprisingly), and by the time they finally came out (this was in the summer, naturally) and knocked him to the ground it wasn't a very pleasant thing to deal with, as you can probably imagine.

:-(

What do all of you think? I've often thought that whatever part of state government that deals with wildlife should capture the deer in urban areas and truck them off to places where people hunt. I've even thought that the deer could be harvested and their meat sold as a way to lower our tax bills. I say let the citizens vote on this so that a couple of protestors can't stop this. Deer populations in urban areas have exploded especially since they have no predators. It's not healthy for the deer or for people driving in urban areas and some people have been attacked by rutting deer. Does anyone else have a solution?

Last weekend there was an article in our local newspaper about the amount spent by our state on the errant deer population. They have determined that in my community we spend something like $1100-$1500 per family per year to control them and the lyme disease spread by deer ticks. I cannot say that I know about deer attacking, but they are the cause of many hit and run accidents. They hit the cars and run away,scaring the living daylights out of the motorist and damaging the vehicle. If they are dining on your bushes and you honk the car horn or yell at them, the deer give you a look like "don't bother me while I'm eating." Bambi, where are you?

I forgot about the ticks. There really should be some sort of population control for deer.

My DH has had both Lyme Disease and Erlichiosis, thanks to deer. So we eat them gladly...

I remember several years ago on TV the Garden Guy was talking with a friend who was detailing all the anti-deer tricks he had tried that didn't work from hanging soap to lion's pee. But he said he'd finally solved the problem and invited the GGuy over for dinner. "OK," said the GG, "what are you cooking?"
"Venison", said the friend.

Great story, Don. I have a cousin who would never eat wild game or fish. One time, years ago, she was visiting and I was cooking some venison. She flatly refused to eat any and asked me if it ever bothered me to harvest an animal. I told her that just recently I was cooking venison and was thinking back and recalling every detail of the hunt when I realized I had tears streaming down my face. She smiled and said "REALLY". I said, "Yeah, but it was only the onions". A few days later, her mother, unknowingly ate some venison meat loaf. She said it was the best meat loaf she had ever eaten and was so moist. Boy, if she had only known she probably would have harvested me! LOL

Just have to chime in with my favoites -- venison chili and venison swiss steak!

I once had an acquaintenance ask how I could possibly shoot something as beautiful as a deer; he had no problem with eating beef, because, as he stated, "I only eat ugly animals."

Maybe that's the difference, I think a cow or a steer is also a beautiful animal! Now, for anyone who is vegetarian or vegan, I have no argument other than I'm not ready to give up being a carnivore.

Weedwhacker,you hit the nail on the head. If a person is a vegetarian, I have no argument. This wasn't the case with the cousin I mentioned earlier. Besides not wanting to take an animal's life, she also felt that wild game and processing it yourself seemed so unclean. Her father used to raise pigs and I asked if she ever ate any pork. She said she loved pork. Apparently she felt these animals living, rolling and eating in mud, plus the odor was cleaner than wild game. As a teenager, I spent a summer working in the meat department of a local supermarket. Wow, the stories I could tell about cleanliness or lack of. Just because it's nicely wrapped and labeled doesn't necessarily tell the whole story.

Oh boy, processing it yourself is unclean??? People seriously need an education in how meat is commercially processed, never mind how the animals are "dispatched." Of course, no one really wants to think about that when they're buying their Big Mac. (which opens up a whole new world, restaurant cleanliness... which is something I try not to think about myself!)

I didn't get a chance to read all through this thread but wanted to tell you what we do to keep the deer out of our garden.

We have deer here horribly, and it drives me nuts cause they eat everything in sight. We put up yearly an electric fence around our garden and it works fabulous. the fence is a single strand of electric fence nothing else. just one strand of it, about 2 to 3 foot off the ground, and we go around that fence and tape with the two sided tape, a piece of foil over the fence and put peanut butter on the inside of each piece of foil. That way when the deer come up to the fence they smell the peanut butter and touch the foil and shock their noses instead of them tearing up the fence , they get scared and run off. WE didn't want to spend alot of money on this we just stuck steaks in the ground and ran the fence around it, and it works fabulous. fence might get broke twice in a season, the peanut butter works as far as keeping them from jumpin over the fence also, they smell the peanut butter and stick their noses down first before jumping over. and now when the peanut butter is gone, they go no where near the garden cause they know what's there. half the time we don't even turn the fence on.

Kathy you've got a great idea. I grew up on a dairy farm where we used electric fencing. We'd have the fence on in the spring and early summer, but for the rest of the summer and fall it would only be on sporadically. I've never thought about fencing before because I thought it had to something like Stalag 13. Your idea sounds much easier. The peanut butter would be great for raccoons too.

I still think that in urban areas where the deer are overpopulated there should be some kind of control whether it be harvesting the deer for their meat or moving them to places where hunting is allowed. There was a news story about a coyote being found in a suburb of NYC last weekend. You can be sure that something will be done to eradicate coyotes if the problem gets bigger, but somehow urban people have to put up with deer!!!!

I also have coyotes but they do not eat the garden!! LOL